1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to internal combustion engine poppet valve systems and a means for securing valve spring retainers in such engine systems.
2. Disclosure Information
Internal combustion engines have used popper valves since almost the dawn of the automotive age. Once assembled exclusively by manual labor, it is, of course, desirable to use automation in the assembly of such valve systems. Poppet valve retainers used in automotive cylinder heads are an item which it is particularly desirable to assemble with automation, given the fact that cylinder heads may contain dozens of valves, all of which require meticulous assembly. One problem with automated assembly of poppet valves arises from the fact that if the valve spring keepers have more than one annular land on their interior surfaces, so as to engage more than one groove of the valve stem, it is possible with prior art valve spring retainer and keeper systems for the keepers to be not fully engaged with the valve stem, while still allowing the retainer to assume its fully installed position visa vis the valve stem.
Faced with an improper installation problem, at least one attempt has been made to solve such situation by providing a keeper with unequally sized retention abutments. Thus, as shown in FIG. 7, the retention abutments grow increasingly large as one moves from the direction of the of the valve head to the outboard end of the valve stem. Unfortunately, as illustrated in FIG. 8, the construction shown in FIG. 7 will not solve the problem with improperly engaged valve retainers because the retention abutments at the lower part of the keepers, i.e., the smaller retention abutments, may become engaged with the grooves formed in the upper part of the valve stem, i.e., the larger grooves, and as a result the prior art unequally sized abutment system of FIG. 7 will not solve the problem which is advantageously solved by the present invention.